1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste-toner collection system for collecting waste toner removed from an image bearing member, such as a photosensitive drum or an intermediate transfer belt, and an image forming apparatus having the waste-toner collection system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, such as a copier or a printer, a toner image formed on a photosensitive drum is directly transferred onto a sheet, or transferred onto a sheet through an intermediate transfer belt. In this process, a part of a toner of the toner image fails to be transferred, and remains as a non-transferred toner on an image bearing member, such as the photosensitive drum or the intermediate transfer belt. If this non-transferred toner remains untreated, it will preclude performing a next cycle of image forming operation with desirable quality. Therefore, the non-transferred toner is removed by a cleaning device, such as a drum cleaner or a belt cleaner, and then collected as waste toner (see, for example, JP 11-272142A; hereinafter referred to as “D1”).
In an image forming apparatus disclosed in the document D1, a non-transferred toner remaining on a photosensitive drum is removed by a cleaning device, and the removed non-transferred toner is transported by a transport screw and collected into a waste toner box (waste toner container). Then, when a full state of waste toner in the waste toner box is detected by a sensor, a user opens a pass door arranged on a lateral surface of an apparatus body. Then, the user draws out a holder to take out the waste toner container held in the holder and replace the waste toner container with a new one. In this manner, it is facilitated to achieve a longer life duration of a process cartridge.
However, in the image forming apparatus disclosed in the document D1, after opening the pass door on the lateral surface of the apparatus body and drawing out the holder, the waste toner container is taken out from the holder and then a new waste toner container is attached to the holder.
Thus, a user is required to walk into a lateral side of the apparatus body to perform a replacement operation for a waste toner container, which causes a problem of an increase in user's burden of replacement operations. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure a lateral space required for opening the pass door and drawing out the holder, which causes a problem of an increase in area occupied by the image forming apparatus.